Comments - America's Lingering Infection: Racism - Our Salon2018-03-20T02:18:41Zhttp://oursalon.ning.com/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=6524927%3ABlogPost%3A720316&xn_auth=noI would have fought Tojo, I w…tag:oursalon.ning.com,2018-01-23:6524927:Comment:7211492018-01-23T02:17:04.067ZMaui Surferhttp://oursalon.ning.com/profile/MauiSurfer
<p>I would have fought Tojo, I would have fought Hitler, I would have fought Mussolini, I likely we would have been with Hemingway and the rest in Spain before the momentum even picked up to the point it did. I WOULD NOT be conscripted, against my will, to fight my own relatives. As a civilian military employee I saw things about what is happening today that I cannot talk about, but, I can continue to point out the fall of the Iron Curtain, the unemployment of the Russian Rocket Scientists, and…</p>
<p>I would have fought Tojo, I would have fought Hitler, I would have fought Mussolini, I likely we would have been with Hemingway and the rest in Spain before the momentum even picked up to the point it did. I WOULD NOT be conscripted, against my will, to fight my own relatives. As a civilian military employee I saw things about what is happening today that I cannot talk about, but, I can continue to point out the fall of the Iron Curtain, the unemployment of the Russian Rocket Scientists, and the rise of the old UNIX Shell Internet we were communicating with Walesa on became the Web. And the Russians understood, and still do, the technology beneath it better than we do, even though we started ARPANET, because, THEY WERE FUCKING ROCKET SCIENTISTS, relatively minor networking tasks were hardly a challenge to them, haven't been since, and have allowed them to enrich themselves through banking frauds while throwing the election of their biggest rival using a "reverse" algorithm overlay which clearly showed the racist hatred of Northern Michiganders. Anyone who studies any American Militia and disagrees with this is reading the wrong material.</p> " In Vietnam we were fightin…tag:oursalon.ning.com,2018-01-21:6524927:Comment:7208442018-01-21T02:08:58.107Zmoki ikomhttp://oursalon.ning.com/profile/mokiikom
<p><span> " In Vietnam we were fighting an ideology, and we were fighting to keep the world safe for capitalism and empire. "</span></p>
<p><span>safe for u.s. empire: u.s. capitalism/u.s. corporatism/u.s. dollar-promisesorry note/u.s. militarism/ safe for u.s. fascism</span></p>
<p><span>but for Russia, ww2 was a war among fascists. With Republicans running the United States we can at last agree with the President, "We are the world's supreme fascist. No one is greater. We are the best. The…</span></p>
<p><span> " In Vietnam we were fighting an ideology, and we were fighting to keep the world safe for capitalism and empire. "</span></p>
<p><span>safe for u.s. empire: u.s. capitalism/u.s. corporatism/u.s. dollar-promisesorry note/u.s. militarism/ safe for u.s. fascism</span></p>
<p><span>but for Russia, ww2 was a war among fascists. With Republicans running the United States we can at last agree with the President, "We are the world's supreme fascist. No one is greater. We are the best. The Democrats are losers."</span></p>
<p><span>.</span></p> M.I. and M.S., I was thinking…tag:oursalon.ning.com,2018-01-21:6524927:Comment:7210012018-01-21T01:47:38.181ZRodney Roehttp://oursalon.ning.com/profile/RodneyRoe
<p>M.I. and M.S., I was thinking of man in terms of humans, and my comments about the need for divisiveness referred to the thoughts of anthropologists; that we organize into groups based on the fact that we survive better in groups than as individuals. As you point out we are individuals striving to satisfy our basic needs, but cooperating with groups at various levels; family groups, extended family groups, bands, tribes etc. All of those associations are based on language, culture,…</p>
<p>M.I. and M.S., I was thinking of man in terms of humans, and my comments about the need for divisiveness referred to the thoughts of anthropologists; that we organize into groups based on the fact that we survive better in groups than as individuals. As you point out we are individuals striving to satisfy our basic needs, but cooperating with groups at various levels; family groups, extended family groups, bands, tribes etc. All of those associations are based on language, culture, religious beliefs, physical traits etc. The larger the group, the greater the tension, because we become increasingly unalike in large groups. So, we have strongest allegiance to the most similar group.</p>
<p>Maui, I do see the trend you mention in younger Americans. We've now had a couple of generations of kids going to school together, playing sports together, partying together, and increasingly they see themselves as more alike than different. But, there are still cultural and religious differences. With the number of millennials marking "none" on religious preferences growing, those differences are becoming less. Maybe I'm just a cockeyed optimist but I think there is hope.,</p>
<p>The need for a group seems embedded in our DNA. Empathy and compassion are part of the glue that bind us together, but we know that there are individuals like sociopaths and narcissists that feel neither yet need a group and learn to act as though they are empathetic in order to get what they want.</p>
<p>Yes, we need sex, shelter and food as individuals as primary needs, but we cooperate in groups to get those things.</p>
<p>There is push-pull often.</p>
<p>Maui Surfer, I think you said that you didn’t want to support America fighting Vietnamese because you are part Chinese and Vietnamese are linguistically related and probably genetically related. But, you would have drawn the line with a Hitler.</p>
<p>My father whose grandparents were German immigrants said that he would have rather been fighting the French, because he thought the French surrendered too easily to Germany, and because he understood German, understood the insults that were being hurled at them by women and old people as they moved through Germany, and felt like he was fighting family. But, he was never confused about what he had to do.</p>
<p>I don’t think he felt like he was fighting an ideology as much as a menace to the people at home. In Vietnam we were fighting an ideology, and we were fighting to keep the world safe for capitalism and empire. </p> How Heidegger could have so a…tag:oursalon.ning.com,2018-01-20:6524927:Comment:7208332018-01-20T22:26:33.329ZMaui Surferhttp://oursalon.ning.com/profile/MauiSurfer
<p>How Heidegger could have so astutely observed that if Metaphysics existed at all it must have had a beginning and will then of course have an end as well has always baffled me that he could also be such a Jekyll/Hyde Nazi piece of shit at the same time.</p>
<p>How Heidegger could have so astutely observed that if Metaphysics existed at all it must have had a beginning and will then of course have an end as well has always baffled me that he could also be such a Jekyll/Hyde Nazi piece of shit at the same time.</p> Against Hate: Deconstructing…tag:oursalon.ning.com,2018-01-20:6524927:Comment:7208302018-01-20T21:40:00.122Zmoki ikomhttp://oursalon.ning.com/profile/mokiikom
<p class="p2"><a href="http://http://arcade.stanford.edu/blogs/against-hate-deconstructing-terror-iii" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Against Hate: Deconstructing Terror (III)</a></p>
<p class="p2">Steve Bannon articulated the task of the Trump Administration as “the deconstruction of the Administrative State.” … <span style="font-size: 12pt;">the phrase makes a stark reference to an ideology of hate espoused by proponents of the Nazi party, and noted in the …</span></p>
<p class="p2"><a href="http://http://arcade.stanford.edu/blogs/against-hate-deconstructing-terror-iii" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Against Hate: Deconstructing Terror (III)</a></p>
<p class="p2">Steve Bannon articulated the task of the Trump Administration as “the deconstruction of the Administrative State.” … <span style="font-size: 12pt;">the phrase makes a stark reference to an ideology of hate espoused by proponents of the Nazi party, and noted in the <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/10/18/in-his-own-words/"><span class="s1"><i>Black Notebooks</i></span></a> </span>of Martin Heidegger (1889-1976).</p>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Hate</span> is an ideology in the sense that all ideologies constitute an imaginary relationship to a real. <span style="font-size: 12pt;">Like racism</span>, which is predicated on a considerable amount of animosity and aversion based on skin color, hate <span style="font-size: 14pt;">is a negative emotion, an aggressive predisposition and the polar opposite of empathy and compassion</span> towards someone or a class of people. Hate is so perverse that it cannot only consume an individual’s entire life, but, when circumstances are favorable enough, can also <span style="font-size: 14pt;">blur into moral judgment, seep into philosophical discourses and be passed on from an individual to whole institutions and nations,</span> as was seen in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_in_Nazi_Germany"><span class="s1">Nazi Germany.</span></a></p>
<p class="p2">When hate becomes <span style="font-size: 12pt;">a dominant ideology and a “mission,</span>” administered by government officials, passed into laws, executed by the police and border protection officers, what in reality is being policed and protected is the pathology of hate itself, now metamorphosed into law and order, administratively funneled through social institutions and practiced without misgivings on a daily basis. At stake is the <span style="font-size: 12pt;">shifting of the moral compass and the transformation of hate into a lived reality, a banality <i>à la </i>Arendt, no longer questioned, an everyday systemic practice, like taking the train to work or lining up for coffee at Starbucks. Hate wants to control everything, especially the media,</span> in order to gain access to the population and slowly suture citizens into conformity and normalization. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Oppose the politics of hate and you become the enemy of the state.</span></p>
<p class="p1">What do you do if you wake up one morning and find yourself the enemy of your own state as you witness a not so tacit decline into authoritarianism?</p>
<p class="p1">What do you do when someone is inviting you to take part in a new national project, namely, “the deconstruction of the administrative state?” </p>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><em>17.03.17 <a href="http://arcade.stanford.edu/blogs/against-hate-deconstructing-terror-iii">http://arcade.stanford.edu/blogs/against-hate-deconstructing-terror-iii</a></em></span></p> Man's "biological bent" is to…tag:oursalon.ning.com,2018-01-20:6524927:Comment:7208252018-01-20T21:04:42.644Zmoki ikomhttp://oursalon.ning.com/profile/mokiikom
<p>Man's "biological bent" is to please himself-- eat, sleep, hunt, kill, eat, screw, sleep, eat, hunt, fight, kill, screw, eat, sleep, eat, find excuses for his inhumanity and so on. Woman's biological bent is, fortunately for the human race, not identical.</p>
<p>Man's "biological bent" is to please himself-- eat, sleep, hunt, kill, eat, screw, sleep, eat, hunt, fight, kill, screw, eat, sleep, eat, find excuses for his inhumanity and so on. Woman's biological bent is, fortunately for the human race, not identical.</p> i whoIIy agree
"It seems that…tag:oursalon.ning.com,2018-01-20:6524927:Comment:7208242018-01-20T20:52:12.799Zmoki ikomhttp://oursalon.ning.com/profile/mokiikom
<p class="p1">i whoIIy agree</p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: right;">"<span style="text-decoration: line-through; font-size: 8pt;"><span class="s1">It seems that</span> </span>We cannot evolve socially because we spent so long evolving biologically, and our biological bent is toward division rather than unity. That is human nature it seems."</p>
<p class="p1">except to elaborate: </p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: center;">The reason we cannot evolve is because this nation of peoples…</p>
<p class="p1">i whoIIy agree</p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: right;">"<span style="text-decoration: line-through; font-size: 8pt;"><span class="s1">It seems that</span> </span>We cannot evolve socially because we spent so long evolving biologically, and our biological bent is toward division rather than unity. That is human nature it seems."</p>
<p class="p1">except to elaborate: </p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: center;">The reason we cannot evolve is because this nation of peoples has evolved to be overwhelmingly led by reactionary forces and powers who are existentially at odds with evolution of any description<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;">-biologically, socially, spiritually, rationally, politically, economically-</span> making such anti-progressive conservatives-driven misleadership about as human nature as was/is slavery, fratricide, incest, warfare, ecocide, greed, hate, cheating and not necessarily to complete the list, lying.</p>
<p class="p1">.</p> Being a scientist by educatio…tag:oursalon.ning.com,2018-01-20:6524927:Comment:7208212018-01-20T20:04:57.104Zmoki ikomhttp://oursalon.ning.com/profile/mokiikom
<p class="p1">Being a scientist by education, a teacher, a carpenter, a gardener, roughneck, soldier, strawberry picker, painter <span style="font-size: 8pt;">(not artist or for that matter musician, unfortunately for my psyche)</span>, lifeguard,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> draftsman, chain and rodman among other things since emerging from broken home adolecence during cuban missile crisis, presidential assassination, assassinations of assassin, political candidates and ciivil…</p>
<p class="p1">Being a scientist by education, a teacher, a carpenter, a gardener, roughneck, soldier, strawberry picker, painter <span style="font-size: 8pt;">(not artist or for that matter musician, unfortunately for my psyche)</span>, lifeguard,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> draftsman, chain and rodman among other things since emerging from broken home adolecence during cuban missile crisis, presidential assassination, assassinations of assassin, political candidates and ciivil rights leaders encompassing in the beginning most of twenty years<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> living low middle to poor white in southern u.s. white america, i’ve got a drive that seeks definition in chaos and meaninglessness which habit some may say is symtomatic of hope. hope near, if not, wholly void of alleged spiritual comforts of religiosity; informed and tolerant of others’ such beliefs, but especially of adherents’ hypocrisies which make organized religions so repelling to me.</p>
<p class="p1">Short of seeing our shadows from the light of a nuclear blast, I can't imagine saying to anyone it’s hopeless.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Hope can be aligned with fact, truth and logic but the comforts it affords beyond reality are what make it hope and not merely human<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> awareness.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Luck, whether good or bad, being chance, plays a big role in our lives whether we want to admit it or not; however, we humans are unquestionably pushing the envelope of becoming <span style="font-size: 8pt;"><em>“Flat Out of Luck”</em></span> .</p> Rodney- again, it is about 53…tag:oursalon.ning.com,2018-01-20:6524927:Comment:7205762018-01-20T17:35:04.591ZMaui Surferhttp://oursalon.ning.com/profile/MauiSurfer
<p>Rodney- again, it is about 53 percent, look at the MATH (math don't lie), remember Romney (an asshole, but a really smart guy) and know that is the amount. Moki is right in that the early Protestants thought of First People's as lesser both for religious and then the obvious physical differences. There was a shift from blaming the protests against bad conditions for slaves and indentured servants in the early 1600's where the move was made from blaming their heathen religion to their race.…</p>
<p>Rodney- again, it is about 53 percent, look at the MATH (math don't lie), remember Romney (an asshole, but a really smart guy) and know that is the amount. Moki is right in that the early Protestants thought of First People's as lesser both for religious and then the obvious physical differences. There was a shift from blaming the protests against bad conditions for slaves and indentured servants in the early 1600's where the move was made from blaming their heathen religion to their race. Well, now here we are, and Moki is right, the racial hatred monstrosity is in over half of white people, and in many "minorities" who don't appreciate all the hatred and put downs and segregation and favoritism, etc.</p>
<p>However, it is not at all hopeless. Millennials don't know that music, first in the Five Corners and New Orleans with the birth of intercultural Jazz, then during Prohibition when mixing was OK because it was underground, and finally with MTV finally broadcasting Black and Brown music along with Big Hair New Wave, our children began to see they liked each other. Then, the Web began to finish it off and now mobile phones make the whole thing a joke for the 47 percent of white folks who are "normal" ... it don't seem like it, but we are winning. The Nixononians, who, like the Drumpists, remained loyal to him even after his crimes were revealed, are almost dead. Take our vitamins, though you are the Doc, so help us live long enough to see the Rainbow.</p> So, Moki Ikom, you are saying…tag:oursalon.ning.com,2018-01-20:6524927:Comment:7206832018-01-20T13:49:06.976ZRodney Roehttp://oursalon.ning.com/profile/RodneyRoe
<p>So, Moki Ikom, you are saying it is hopeless; that it is like asking a tiger to change its stripes?</p>
<p>II don't know what percentage of America feels that they are racially superior. It seems that we cannot evolve socially because we spent so long evolving biologically, and our biological bent is toward division rather than unity. That is human nature it seems.</p>
<p>So, Moki Ikom, you are saying it is hopeless; that it is like asking a tiger to change its stripes?</p>
<p>II don't know what percentage of America feels that they are racially superior. It seems that we cannot evolve socially because we spent so long evolving biologically, and our biological bent is toward division rather than unity. That is human nature it seems.</p>